View full sizeCourtesy of Michigan Tech Great Lakes Research CenterLake Michigan water temperature recorded from an offshore buoy near Ludington. Temperatures dropped from about 72 degrees to 42 degrees in about a day this past weekend.

MUSKEGON, MI -- There really hasn't been much to complain about with Lake Michigan water temperatures this summer -- until now.

All good things must come to an end, however, as water temperatures have fallen as much as 30 degrees during the past weekend. Winds blowing off the shore pushed the warm water away, ushering in cooler water from the bottom of the lake through a process known as upwelling, said Nathan Jeruzal, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.

Such a phenomenon is typical during an average summer, he said. Storm systems like the one this past weekend occasionally move in, bringing with it a blanket of clouds, cool rains and those north northeasterly winds to kickstart upwelling.

In spite of the current temperatures, they won't last for long.

View full sizeKen Stevens | MLiveJaslene, 2, and Aidan McHenry, 3, watch the seagulls on the beach on Thursday, July 28 at Pere Marquette Park Beach on Lake Michigan in Muskegon. Scenes like these have been a rarity recently with the cooler water temperatures.

"All it will take are winds from the west — where the temperatures out in mid lake are still warm — to blow some of that water into the shore," Jeruzal said. "If we get a stretch of sunny days, that will help warm those temps also."

At a buoy offshore from Holland, water temperatures there fell from a mild 73 degrees Friday to a frigid 46 degrees in a little more than a day.

While warmer air is on its way, there is another side to the story: Lake effect snowfall.

If these warmer waters can sustain their temperatures through November and December, there might be a brief window of opportunity to enhance how much snowfall is received in the snow belt areas, Jeruzal said.

"But it's a brief window," he said. "Say the water temperature is a couple degrees warmer in December — that won't last for long."